Just about four years ago, Shaan was smiling his way home with not one or two, but three trophies for Best Male Playback Singer awards from Filmfare, Zee Cine and IIFA. The song was a very soothing, Jab S se T tere N naina from Saawariya .
Shaan, 38, despite “a tear in the vocal chord that pains” recalls with fond nostalgia the story behind the award-winning song. “This song took its music director Monty five days to get it just the way he wanted it. On the first day of the recording, my throat got sore and I couldn't produce the desired results. So, instead of making me sing and then erase the roughness with auto tuning equipments, he asked me to go back and come later.”
Just rewind to the black and white days on celluloid, you discover there were times when filmmaker Bimal
Roy made Geeta Dutt sing the lullaby Nanhi kali sone chali on night recording.
To make it feel real, he brought his five-year-old son to the studio and asked Dutt to sing it to him son with a condition, “If my son sleeps, then I would understand that you have sung it like a lullaby.”
And till today, this lullaby is one of the favourites with moms.
Shaan adds with a sigh, “Such stories are like folk lore today. I also miss the whole creative process of recording in studios. My father (Manas Mukherjee) was a composer, arranger and music director. I have seen the musical process happening in front of my eyes. He used to take me to the studio, create music, do recordings. It used to be a fascinating sight. Aaj na woh log hain, na woh charity aur na woh magic. The only time I enjoyed singing was for Sanjay Leela Bhansali who takes great interest in music-making. We recorded Saawariya' in the swanky Yashraj Studio with a huge intimidating mike. But Aadesh Shrivatsav and Jatin-Lalit still have traces of the old school.”
“Bird Idol”
‘Techno singing' may have discouraged Shaan, but he still takes up projects that require “some creative singing” as he puts it. One of these is Bird Idol , a 3D Hindi animation film produced by Goel Screencraft. It will be released by Warner Brothers this Friday. Shaan has sung three songs in the film in which the music is composed by Sangeet and Siddharth Haldipur.
Says Shaan delightfully, “Yes, this film has been a pleasantly different experience for me. Its music composers knew me for many years. They have made me sing for birds, so it's chirpy, lively, very young and cute. It kept my mind on a different zone. Juhi Chawla and Kailash Kher have also sung with me. I had to imagine how a bird flutters and chirps. It was immensely delightful.”
The singer made his presence felt with two songs of 3 Idiots recently but he minces no words when he says he has lost interest in recording these days.
“Studio recordings are almost like a dream today. The technology has developed too fast for the composers and music directors to relieve them of the pain of studio recording. Now, we don't know even the actor we are singing for, or the situation of the song. Even the composers are not present at the recording venue. The tune to be sung is sent to us on the mobile or Internet and other details on fax or mail. We go, sing and leave. There are no rehearsals or a senior sitting on our head to pat our back or slam us. Instead, there are good dubbing artist/arrangers who know the finer nuances of singing and technology. So, they ‘finish' the ‘product'. At times you sing badly, but when you hear it on the record, you can't even make out what mistake you had committed. They iron out the roughness with some auto tune equipments.”
Recently, Shaan lost to Shankar Mahadevan in the IPL Music Ka Maha Muqabala on television. He often sang poorly. And most of his songs had no reflection of his early Tanha DiIl and Aksar album days.
It is to be noted that Shaan didn't train as much in classical music as the old masters. Hence, he often falls flat during his stage shows. He has been reported saying that today's music directors often cast new singers for variety and talent and hence singers like him are often sidelined.
The query upsets him. “Today if I am not singing as much doesn't mean that I am not in demand. I am a singer anyway and not a playback singer. So I do shows and sing for international ventures. In fact, I now feel freer from the routine ‘trap.'”
Singer-composers
Now composers often sing themselves. Shaan interrupts,
“There is nothing wrong in that. Composers like Shankar Mahadevan, Vishal Dadlani and Rahman are classically trained in both vocal and instrumental music. Shankar is an excellent singer and what Rahman can sing, no one can. What I feel sad about is, today just anyone is singing because singing is trendy. While making music today, a composer has no say, unlike old days where he used to be the captain of the ship. Today a director, whether musically inclined or not, calls the shot. A sound track is created and the singer sings ‘with' it. Where is the original voice, where is creativity and where is the music? Now, there is this new nasal, metallic sound that they mix with the original voice and make it a ‘techno voice' and claim people like it. If amid all that, I lose my interest, it obviously reflects in my work too.”
While believing that those who wish to sing always find a song, let's hope Shaan of Tanha Dil will come back soon too.
